Wii U Pre-orders And Trade-in Deals Already Offered At GameStop

Ladies and gentlemen. Boys and girls. Children of all ages…Step right this way and feast your eyes on the gaming console of the future, the Nintendo Wii U. Now, I know what you’re saying: “But I don’t have the $300 for the 8GB model, much less the $350 for the 32GB model.” Fear not, savvy shoppers, because your friendly neighborhood GameStop is here to offer special trade-in opportunities to make all of your next gen gaming fantasies a reality.

Nintendo pulled back the curtain on the Wii U at a special event held in New York this morning and, as soon as the details had been dropped about the upcoming home console, the fine folks at GameStop started trying to sweeten the pot to earn your gaming dollars.

“Our customers have been anxious to pre-order the Wii U since details were announced at E3,” said GameStop President Tony Bartel.

As such, as soon as the Wii U release date of Nov. 18 was announced, GameStop started taking pre-orders on the console and several launch titles including Call of Duty: Black Ops II, ZombiU, New Super Mario Bros. U, and Batman: Arkham City: Armored Edition.

In case you’re wanting to take a nice chunk out of that initial Wii U price tag, GameStop is also offering a number of trade-in bonuses when funds are going to the new console.

You can get $50 in trade credit for a Wii and $90 in trade credit for an original Xbox 360, PS Vita or 3DS. If you’re trading in an original PS3 or slim Xbox 360, you can nab yourself $115. Finally, if you are trading in a slim PS3, that’ll earn you $140 towards a Wii U.

As an added bonus, GameStop PowerUp Rewards members will get an additional $10 when trading in a console towards the Wii U.

My one snagging point is that GameStop’s press release says those PowerUp members will have “the opportunity to save up to $150 on the Wii U.” I’m curious if that means that $150 is the roof for trade-in credit being used towards a Wii U. In other words, are you not able to trade in a PS3, 360 and 3DS in order to get a Wii U free of charge? I’m not sure why anyone would see that as a good deal in the first place but, still, it leaves me wondering.

Either way, if you’re looking to pre-order a Wii U and trade in some old consoles while you’re at it, it looks like GameStop has you covered.